John Travolta Proves He’s Still Got It, Teaching James Corden & Aaron Taylor-Johnson Some Smooth Dance Moves

Like all legends, John Travolta has truly aged like fine wine. At 65, he demonstrated that his dance skills are still sharp by giving a playful dance lesson to James Corden. Corden kicked off the segment by asking the English power couple Aaron and Sam Taylor-Johnson about the time they dressed up as John Travolta and Uma Thurman’s characters from Pulp Fiction for Halloween. Sam and Corden then praised the classic film, which includes the unforgettable dance scene featuring Travolta and Thurman.

Corden subsequently invited Travolta to provide them with a dance lesson. During his peak years, Travolta dominated the dance scene in movies like Grease and Saturday Night Fever, proving to everyone watching that he still knew how to shake a tail feather. Travolta taught the other three several dances, including the twist, the swim, the hip shaker, the mashed potatoes, and finally, the Batman. It was a simple segment, but Travolta’s charm completely carried it, making it a delightful watch.

Travolta conducted his dance class on The Late Late Show with James Corden in an episode uploaded on December 5, 2019. The uplifting segment became quite popular on Corden’s YouTube channel, attracting 18.9 million views. Fans were thrilled to see Travolta back on the dance floor, leaving comments like “The man’s still got it – you never lose class” and “John Travolta should be declared as a national treasure. Love the guy, so nice, iconic, resilient and positive.”

The dance scene between Travolta and Thurman in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is one of the most memorable scenes in cinema history. In the film, Travolta portrays Vincent Vega, a career criminal tasked with entertaining his boss’s wife, Mia Wallace, played by Thurman. The duo visit a venue where Mia insists on joining the dance competition, and they dance to Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell.” The moves Travolta showcases on Corden’s show are inspired by the original scene.

The Corden segment unveiled some intriguing details about Travolta’s involvement in crafting the dance scene in Pulp Fiction. The leading actor explained, “Quentin was dead set on both of us doing the twist, which is a very fun dance, but it’s limited in how long one wants to watch someone doing the twist.”

Travolta continued, saying, “So I said to Quentin, when I was growing up there were novelty dances, like the swim and the Batman. I said ‘maybe we should widen the spectrum on this.’” After witnessing Travolta’s novelty dances, the director was convinced, leading to the creation of the classic dance scene.